Dates Set for Amtrak Service Restoration

Daily operation on three Amtrak will be phased into place during the first week of October.

Trains magazine reported on its website that daily operation of the New York-New Orleans Crescent will resume on Oct. 4 and for the City of New Orleans between Chicago and New Orleans on Oct. 8.

Those dates correspond to the first dates that those trains would not have operated under the current operating conditions of running five days a week.

The New York-Miami Silver Meteor, which has been suspended since last January, will resume operating on Oct. 3.

The Trains report said that originally Amtrak said it would reinstate daily service on all three routes starting Sept. 11. But the service suspensions have been extended into October.

In suspending service on these and other routes last mid-January Amtrak cited a shortage of workers in its mechanical and onboard services departments as well as COVID-19 pandemic complications.

The suspended service on most long-distance routes has since been restored.

Amtrak has also restored some suspended services in the Northeast Corridor, including an overnight train between Boston and points in Virginia.

The New York-Toronto Maple Leaf was restored over the length of its route on June 27 and a second St. Louis-Kansas City Missouri River Runner was restored on July 17.

Still suspended are the New York-Montreal Adirondack, the Chicago to Carbondale, Illinois, Saluki, and the Carbondale to Chicago Illini.

Trains reported service restorations made or planned thus far reflect Amtrak’s belief of what service can be reliably supported with the existing labor force and the equipment that is operable.

Amtrak Service Reinstatements Remain in Flux

Restoration of suspended Amtrak services remains in flux despite what has been reported in recent days based on company planning documents.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari cautioned that some trains shown on Amtrak’s website as operating in June might be canceled and that many service decisions shown in the planning document are still pending.

One example of that is the Chicago-Grand Rapids, Michigan, Pere Marquette, which has been suspended since late March and was shown in the Amtrak reservation system as resuming operation on June 1.

Amtrak has removed the Pere Marquette from its reservation system for June in recent days.

It’s possible some passenger have made reservations for trains that will not be operating on the day of the reservation.

Magliari said in those cases Amtrak will notify the passenger of the cancellation.

Amtrak has announced that some services in the Northeast Corridor will return on June 1.